Department for Education

Schools: Buildings

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which organisations have been contracted by her Department to survey school buildings suspected to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete; and when those contracts were entered into.

Nick Gibb: The Department publishes details of all construction contracts awarded over £10,000 This information is accessible at: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search. Contracts will be published within 30 days of awarding the contracts.

Department for Education: Photographs

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department employs in-house photographers to capture images of Ministers undertaking their official duties.

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many separate digital image files her Department holds per Minister in her Department undertaking official duties; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department’s communications team includes a Digital Engagement and Creative Content team who create content to help communicate key messages to the public via social media feeds belonging to the Department. This content includes: photos, videos, graphics and animations. In addition, this can include occasional photography for Education Ministers undertaking their official duties.Information about separate digital image files in the Department per minister is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Special Educational Needs

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department took to ensure that responses to the SEND consultation were received from all regions in England.

David Johnston: During the 16-week consultation on the Special Educational Needs (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, the department received around 6,000 online responses from the sector including children, young people, families, schools and local government. In addition, 175 online and in person consultation events were delivered, receiving responses from a further 4,500 people. To support receiving responses from people across the country, these events were promoted through a wide range of communication channels, including working in partnership with the Council for Disabled Children and the regional parent carer forums via the National Network of Parent Carer Forums who represent families from each English region.The department also allowed organisations to submit consultation responses. Annex 4 of the independent analysis of the consultation responses shows the wide range of responses received from across the country.The department continues to engage with the SEND and AP sector as reforms are designed and tested through the Change Programme. This will ensure a wide range of perspectives are considered to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with SEND and in AP.

Alternative Education: Special Educational Needs

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to consult with (a) children and (b) the families of children with SEND who are not in formal education as part of the SEND Review.

David Johnston: The consultation on the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper ran from 10 March to 22 July, during this time the department received around 6,000 responses to the online consultation and delivered 175 consultation events hearing from over 4,500 people.The department designed specific consultation questions for children and young people, proactively engaged with seldom heard groups. Consultation events were also delivered with stakeholders such as the Council for Disabled Children’s Friendship, Learning, Achieve, Reach and Empower (FLARE) children and young people’s group and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums that amplified the voices of children, young people and their families, to ensure their views were captured in the consultation feedback.The department continues to engage with children, young people and their families as we design and test reforms through the Change Programme. This will ensure a wide range of perspectives are considered to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with SEND and in AP.

Alternative Education: Special Educational Needs

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to support parents and guardians whose children have not been in a formal education environment for over six months due to special educational needs requirements.

David Johnston: In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the department outlined its commitment to build a consistent national SEND and AP system that parents and carers can trust, easily navigate, and have confidence in.The department understands that barriers to attendance are wide and complex, particularly for pupils with SEND. The attendance guidance for schools and local authorities expects schools, trusts and local authorities to provide joined up support for children and their families facing special educational needs, health or disability related barriers to attendance.Through the AP Specialist Taskforce Pilots, the department is also working directly with young people and their families who are at risk of disengaging with education to offer intensive support. The pilot has supported more than 2,500 children so far, 77% of whom have SEND.Where parents have elected to home educate their child, some local authorities will provide support at their discretion. The department is committed to introducing statutory local authority registers for children not in school, and a duty for local authorities to provide support to home-educating families. We continue to work with local authorities to ensure all children are receiving a suitable education.

Dedicated Schools Grant

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the allocation of gross dedicated schools grant funding for (a) each local authority and (b) York.

Nick Gibb: The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is intended to meet the educational costs of early years pupils, pupils in primary and secondary education, as well as the educational costs of special educational provision for children and young people with Special Educational Needs in post-16 provision, including those aged 19 to 25 who have an Education, Health and Care plan. The DSG is made up of four blocks; the schools block, the high needs block, the early years block and the Central Schools Services Block (CSSB).Funding for the schools, high needs block and the CSSB all comes from the core school budget. The overall core school budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil, as measured by the Institute of Fiscal Studies. This means that, including the additional funding for teachers’ pay, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs is over £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24.The early years block consists of funding for the 15 and 30 hours per week early years entitlements for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds, as well as supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools, the early years pupil premium, and the disability access fund. The Department is providing £204 million of additional funding in 2023/24 and £288 million in 2024/25 for the existing entitlements. This funding is on top of the £4.1 billion that we expect to provide by 2027/28 to facilitate the expansion of the new entitlements announced in the Spring Budget. In 2023/24, we expect to spend a total of £3.9 billion through the DSG, with an additional £204 million through the early years supplementary grant, nationally, on the early years entitlements and other early years funding streams.Each of the blocks of the DSG is distributed according to objective national funding formulae. In 2023/24, York’s December DSG allocation included £119.6 million in schools block funding, £27.7 million in high needs block funding, £11.4 million in early years block funding and £2.1 million in CSSB block funding. York’s total DSG allocation in 2023/24 was over £160.7 million.

Special Educational Needs

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to provide specialist SEND services in mainstream schools.

David Johnston: The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, outlines the department’s mission for more children and young people to have their needs met effectively in mainstream settings.Through the school-led SAFE (‘Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed’) Taskforces programme, the department is investing over £30 million to test new ways of providing specialist support in and around mainstream schools. These taskforces, which are established in ten areas, are investing in evidence-based interventions such as therapeutic support and social skills training and have reached over 1,300 children to date.In partnership with NHS England, the department is also funding the ‘Early Language’ and ‘Support for Every Child’ pathfinders within the £70 million Change Programme. This funding will support local areas to utilise Speech and Language Therapy Assistants in innovative ways to better support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years and primary schoolsThe department is also funding the training of up to 7,000 early years Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs). The training is nationally available, with prioritisation for SENCOs working in settings in more economically disadvantaged areas.Since 2022, the Universal Services programme has supported over 70% of schools and further education colleges to access bespoke professional development, training, and research to help them meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.

Special Educational Needs: Romford

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students in Romford constituency have been diagnosed with special educational needs; and how many are waiting for a diagnosis as of 13 September 2023.

David Johnston: The department collects information in the school census on pupils identified by their school as having special educational needs (SEN). Pupils with SEN either have an Education, Health and Care plan or receive SEN support as identified by their school. This is not dependent on a clinical diagnosis.The latest data are published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england. In the latest data, schools in Romford constituency recorded 1,637 pupils with SEN.

Children: Social Services

Peter Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to publish the results of the Children's social care: stable homes, built on love consultation.

David Johnston: The department published ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, an implementation strategy and consultation, setting out plans to reform children’s social care on the 2 February 2023. It set out how the department will help families overcome challenges, keep children safe, and make sure children in care have stable loving homes, long-term loving relationships, and opportunities for a good life. The consultation closed on the 11 May 2023, and a response was published on the 21 September 2023.

Schools: Absenteeism

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle potential regional disparities in school absence rates.

Nick Gibb: The Government understands how important regular school attendance is for pupils' education, wellbeing and life chances. The Department has a national strategy for tackling absence and is providing targeted support to reduce regional disparities.In 2022, the Department published stronger expectations of schools, trusts, governing bodies and Local Authorities in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance. Schools are now expected to publish an attendance policy, appoint an attendance champion, and use data to identify and then support pupils at risk of becoming persistently absent. This guidance will ensure there is greater consistency for managing attendance across all schools and different Local Authority areas. The Department has deployed 10 expert attendance advisers to work with all 155 English Local Authorities to review practices, develop plans to improve and meet expectations set out in the guidance. The aim of this work is to improve the quality of attendance support in all areas across the country.The Secretary of State and I co chair the ‘Attendance Action Alliance’ of system leaders to work to remove barriers to attendance and reduce absence through delivering pledges of specific actions to tackle the problem. The Department has also made available £5 billion nationally for education recovery, helping pupils to recover from the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. This funding includes up to £1.5 billion on tutoring and nearly £2 billion of direct funding to schools so they can deliver evidence based interventions based on pupil needs.The Department is also providing direct support and funding in specific areas. The Department announced 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs) who will receive up to £42 million to fund bespoke interventions to improve attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4. Where poor attendance has been identified as a key issue in an area, specific attendance initiatives are also being funded to address this.The Department has also launched a £2.32 million attendance mentor pilot which aims to deliver intensive one to one support to persistently and severely absent pupils in 5 PEIAs. This is alongside our 10 new attendance hubs who are sharing their effective practice for attendance with up to 600 partner schools, reaching hundreds of thousands of pupils. Schools in PEIAs also have priority access to support from hubs.

Children: Disadvantaged

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help schools support children in disadvantaged circumstances in the North of England.

Nick Gibb: Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils has been a Departmental priority underpinning all the Department’s education reforms since 2010. The attainment gap narrowed by 9% at secondary school level and by 13% at primary school level between 2011 and 2019.For over a decade, the Department has consistently taken a range of steps to give priority support and deliver programmes that help disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system, and providing targeted support where needed. The Department knows that disadvantaged children have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The widened gap is not acceptable, and the Department is working to reduce this.At a national level, the Department delivers a number of core policies to support disadvantaged pupils, such as free school meals (FSM) that support 1.9 million children, the Holiday Activities and Food Programme where the Department is investing over £200 million a year for the next 2 years and support for 2,500 breakfast clubs and family hubs. Additionally, the Department is also ensuring better targeting of deprivation factors through the National Funding Formula (over 9% of all funding), as well as record amounts of pupil premium funding, £2.6 billion in the 2022/23 financial year and £2.9 billion in 2023/24.The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funds schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, more than £1 billion has been made available to support tutoring. From November 2020 to the 2023/24 academic year nearly 4 million tutoring courses have been started (up to July 2023). By 2024, the Department will have embedded tutoring across schools in England. The Department expects tutoring to continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using their core budgets, including the Pupil Premium, to fund targeted support for those pupils who will benefit.At a regional level, the Department has identified 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) with the lowest attainment outcomes, 27 of which are in the North. In these areas, the Department is providing £86 million for Trust Capacity funding, up to £150 million for Connect the Classroom, and extra funding for Levelling Up Premium retention payments and to support schools with two or more Requires Improvement inspection reports.Furthermore, 24 EIAs have been identified as Priority Education Investment Areas, 13 of which are in the North. These areas face low attainment at Key Stage 2 and entrenched disadvantage. They receive additional investment including £42 million of Local Needs Funding, £86 million for Connect the Classroom and over £2 million for attendance mentoring pilots.

Education: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the level of funding allocation on (a) pupils and (b) levels of attainment.

Nick Gibb: The Government is committed to providing a world class education system for all pupils and has invested significantly in education to achieve that. The Schools White Paper (2022) set out a long term vision for a school system that helps every pupil to fulfil their potential by ensuring that they receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time, founded on achieving world class standards in literacy and numeracy.Funding for mainstream schools and high needs is £57.7 billion in 2023/24. This is following an over £3.9 billion increase in 2023/24, which follows a further £4 billion increase in 2022/23; representing a 16% increase in two years. Next financial year, school funding will be more than £59.6 billion, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil, as measured by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.The National Funding Formula (NFF) continues to distribute this funding fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. While the bulk of funding is distributed through basic entitlement funding, which every pupil attracts regardless of their location or circumstances, in 2023/24 17.4% (£7.2 billion) of the schools NFF has been allocated through additional needs factors based on pupils’ level of deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility. In 2023/24, the most deprived schools have, on average, attracted the largest per pupil funding increases through the schools NFF.Schools also receive the Pupil Premium, which enables them to provide extra support and so improve disadvantaged pupils’ academic and personal achievements. Pupil Premium rates have increased by 5% for 2023/24, taking total Pupil Premium funding to almost £2.9 billion. The National Tutoring Programme funds schools to provide small group tuition based on rates of disadvantage. Since its launch in November 2020, more than £1 billion has been made available to support nearly 4 million tutoring courses, as of July 2023.The Department’s funding system gives head teachers and teachers autonomy over their funding to direct it in the most effective way. Head teachers are best placed to know what will most benefit their pupils, and the Department trusts them to make the right decisions around how to spend the funding that they receive to best support pupils and their attainment.

Special Educational Needs: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding for schools to support pupils with SEND.

David Johnston: The government’s funding for education helps schools raise attainment and provide the right support to all pupils, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).Funding for mainstream schools, where most pupils with SEND are educated, and high needs funding for children and young people with complex needs, will be over £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25, compared to 2023/24.Within the total 2024/25 budget for schools of £59.6 billion, high needs funding will be increasing by a further £440 million, or 4.3%, in 2024/25 compared to this financial year. This will bring the total high needs budget to over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This funding will help schools and local authorities with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.

Special Educational Needs: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the level of high needs block funding on educational outcomes for children with SEND.

David Johnston: We want all children and young people, no matter what their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), to be able to reach their full potential and receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. High needs funding, for children and young people with complex SEND, is rising to £10.5 billion in financial year 2024/25, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This extra funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting them.Children and young people with SEND achieve a wide range of educational outcomes, in the context of a wide range of individual needs. This means that identifying the appropriate set of outcomes for each child and young person, and then the impact of funding levels on those outcomes, separately from other factors, is a complex question. The department has commissioned preliminary research on this question, The SEND Futures value for money feasibility study, further information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-futures-value-for-money-feasibility-study. This study found areas for data improvement to allow for a fuller assessment to be made.The department aims to improve the quality and completeness of data on SEND, in particular through the SEND & Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan. This is in addition to recently moving from an aggregated return to personal level SEN2 data collection. We are also continuing to improve data on the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND as they grow up and prepare for adulthood through our SEND Futures Longitudinal Study.

Schools: Special Educational Needs

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to help ensure that whether a school provides SEND education is taken into account in her Department's assessment of that school's attainment data.

Nick Gibb: When making decisions about the creation, consolidation and growth of academy trusts, the Regions Group team within the Department will always consider the needs of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), both in decisions about mainstream schools and in decisions about special schools or alternative provision (AP) schools.Pupils with SEND are included in school performance data because schools are accountable for the outcomes of all of their pupils, in line with the overarching principle of fair inclusion for all pupils, whatever their background or characteristics.Information about a school’s cohort is shown in performance tables, alongside its progress and attainment data. This includes information about the proportion of pupils in a school with an Education, Health and Care Plan and those with SEN support, compared to national averages. The school performance tables service also indicates when a mainstream school has a SEN unit or resourced provision.

Schools: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the impact (a) price and (b) wage inflation on school budgets for schools (i) in and (ii) outside the f40 network.

Nick Gibb: Each year the Department publishes an assessment of schools’ costs and funding, which looks at mainstream schools in England at the national level. The Department recognises that this assessment will not reflect the position of each individual school, and that different schools will face different financial challenges, including schools in the Local Authorities represented by the f40.The purpose of the schools national funding formula (NFF), which allocates the great majority of school funding in England, is not to give every school the same level of per pupil funding. It is right that schools with more pupils with additional needs – such as those indicated by measures of deprivation, low prior attainment, or English as an additional language – receive extra funding to help them meet the needs of all their pupils.Schools have autonomy and the responsibility to manage their budgets. The Department does not hold real time data on individual schools’ costs and spending decisions. It would not be right to base schools’ funding on the spending decisions of individual schools; schools’ funding is, rather, based on objective measures of comparative need.

Prisoners: Parents

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of support for children of people in prison.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of support given by local authorities for children who have a parent in prison.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the support given by local authority social services departments to children who have a parent in prison.

David Johnston: ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2018) sets out local areas’ responsibilities to provide support and services. It highlights dependent children of imprisoned parents as a cohort which practitioners should be particularly aware of and provide appropriate needs-based advice and support where needed. Ofsted is responsible for assessing the performance of children’s social care services delivered by local authorities.Our ambition is for every family to receive the right support, at the right time. In ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, the department outlined the strategy for whole system reform, including family help, which will provide effective and intensive support to any family facing significant challenges.Prison Mother and Baby Units Admission Boards must be in receipt of a Children’s Services assessment in order to facilitate a Board. Every assessment by a social worker should reflect children’s needs within their family and community context, which would include taking account of a parent being in prison. These children’s circumstances vary considerably and therefore local agencies are best placed to determine what support is needed whether early help, statutory social care services, or support for other needs such as mental health.

Pupils: Disadvantaged

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the report entitled Addressing education and health inequity: perspectives from the North of England published by Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group on 11 September 2023.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with (a) the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and (b) the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the recommendations of the report entitled Addressing education and health inequity: perspectives from the North of England published by Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group on 11 September 2023.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report entitled Addressing education and health inequity: perspectives from the North of England published by Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group on 11 September 2023, whether she will hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on (a) data sharing between and (b) needs assessments undertaken by agencies with a responsibility for children.

Nick Gibb: The Government is committed to providing a world class education system for all pupils so that they can achieve their full potential no matter where they live.The Department is taking a range of steps to support and deliver programmes designed to help disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system and providing targeted support where needed. Many of these programmes address the substantive points made in the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s (APPG) report.The Government is providing around £300 million to enable 75 Local Authorities to open family hubs to improve vital services to give every child the best start in life and so that families can better access the support they need. This builds on the Government’s previous funding of family hubs, which included a £12 million transformation fund to open family hubs in a further 13 Local Authorities in England, including York.To support the development of the youngest and most disadvantaged children, the Department is providing a package of training, qualifications, expert guidance and targeted support for the early years sector.The National Funding Formula (NFF) continues to distribute funding fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. In 2023/24, a greater proportion of schools NFF funding was targeted towards deprived pupils than ever before at 9.8% (over £4 billion). This will help schools to close attainment gaps. In 2023/24, schools with the highest levels of deprivation have, on average, attracted the largest per pupil funding increases.On top of this core funding, the pupil premium, worth over £2.9 billion this year, continues to support schools to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.Almost £5 billion has also been made available for education recovery programmes in early years, schools and colleges, especially focused on helping the most disadvantaged or vulnerable, wherever they live.The Department is providing funding to 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, including £86 million in trust capacity funding to help strong trusts to expand into areas most in need of improvement. 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs), that have particularly low attainment and high rates of disadvantage, will receive more intensive support in addition to the significant help available to all EIAs.To facilitate cross Government working on the Levelling Up agenda, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities leads a regular group including Ministers from all Departments, including from the Department for Education and HM Treasury. The group provides support, challenge and accountability to drive progress and identify opportunities for collaboration on the Levelling Up missions as well as wider issues.The Department also continues to work closely with Ministers and officials in the Department of Health and Social Care to collaborate on ways to improve data and information sharing. The Department has set out its plans in the ‘Improving multi-agency information sharing’ report to Parliament in July 2023 and is working across government to progress these.

Mathematics: Education

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of Subject Knowledge Enhancement courses in mathematics and primary mathematics.

Nick Gibb: The Education Endowment Foundation have highlighted that teacher subject knowledge is crucial for realising the potential of mathematics resources and interventions to raise attainment. They have also noted that access to subject specialist teachers is important for high quality teaching.The Maths Hub Specialist Knowledge for Teaching Maths (SKTM) programmes are sustained professional development programmes that combine workshops with independent work carried out by participants in their own settings. All the SKTM programmes are designed to support teachers to develop both subject knowledge and pedagogy for teaching mathematics. For some schools, this can increase the availability of subject knowledge within the school, even where the school has struggled to recruit subject specialists.Maths Hubs’ SKTM programmes have helped over 4,000 schools to strengthen their teaching by equipping non specialists with the subject knowledge, pedagogical approach and confidence to teach mathematics. Participants and their schools have reported that both lessons and departmental planning time have become more effective following participation in the programme.England performs above the international averages for mathematics in all international studies of school aged pupils. In particular, England achieved its highest ever mathematics score in both the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) international test for year 5 pupils, and the 2018 PISA test of 15 year olds. The 2018 PISA test showed that the performance of 15 year olds improved significantly in mathematics, particularly for lower attaining pupils.

Turing Scheme: Capita

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what has been the total cost to the public purse of services provided by Capita to administer the Turing Scheme.

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students participated in the Turing Scheme in (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what has been the total cost to the public purse of the Turing Scheme.

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what is the average cost to the public purse per participant supported by the Turing Scheme.

Robert Halfon: The department cannot currently calculate the actual average cost to the public purse per participant supported by the Turing Scheme in each academic year. Currently the only data available are the allocated funding amounts and projected participant numbers published on the Turing Scheme website. These will differ from actual expenditure and participation figures.The department will shortly be publishing actual data regarding the international mobilities that were delivered in the first year of the Turing Scheme, the 2021/22 academic year, including the actual number of participants and expenditure by organisations who received Turing Scheme funding. The department will also be publishing finalised data for the 2022/23 academic year in the coming months, following collection of final reports from participating education providers and other organisations in the Turing Scheme, analysis and quality assurance.Funding was allocated for 41,024, 38,374, and 40,206 planned participants in the 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24 academic years respectively. The total cost to the public purse of the Turing Scheme is not known until final reporting is complete.

Department for Education: Policy

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps they are taking to help ensure that their Department (a) gives sufficient attention to long term strategic challenges, (b) does not allow current events to slow down work on long term strategic issues and (c) consistently undertakes horizon scanning.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which Minister in their Department is responsible for overseeing work on long-term strategic challenges; and how many officials in their Department (a) undertake horizon scanning work and (b) focus on delivering long-term priorities.

Nick Gibb: The Liaison Committee recently launched an inquiry into select committee scrutiny of strategic thinking across Whitehall. The Government will be providing written evidence to this in due course.The Department for Education is committed to delivering long term reforms such as those outlined in: the 2022 Schools White Paper, ‘Opportunity for All’; the 2023 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan; the 2023 publication ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’; and the 2021 ‘Skills for Jobs’ White Paper.Under Rishi Sunak, this Conservative Government will always look to make the right long-term decisions for the country.

Class Sizes: Enfield North

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of classes exceed 30 pupils in (a) primary and (b) secondary state schools in Enfield North constituency; and what information her Department holds on those figures for private schools in that constituency.

Nick Gibb: The department publishes figures on class sizes for state-funded primary and secondary schools in England. The most recent figures are for January 2023 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.Despite an increase of more than a million pupils in state-funded primary and secondary schools since 2010, at secondary level, average class sizes remain low at only 22.4 pupils, whilst the average primary class has remained broadly stable at 26.7 pupils.The average class size in Enfield North constituency is 27.1 in state-funded primary schools, and 22.9 in state-funded secondary schools.5.8% of state-funded primary school classes and 12.4% of state-funded secondary school classes in Enfield North constituency had more than thirty pupils in them, compared to 10.4% and 10.2% in England. Nationally, the vast majority of pupils in classes over 30 are in classes of 31 or 32.The department does not collect information on class sizes in independent schools

Schools: Harrow

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has plans to make further funding available to schools in Harrow to improve their safety, capacity and effectiveness; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.The 2021 Spending Review announced a budget of over £19 billion of capital funding to support the education sector between 2022/23 and 2024/25. This funding is in addition to targeted work on RAAC. The Department has continued to fund improving the condition of schools, with over £15 billion allocated since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed for 2023/24, informed by consistent data on the condition of the estate.On top of this, 500 schools will be transformed through the School Rebuilding Programme, prioritising buildings in the poorest condition and those with evidence of potential safety issues. The Sacred Heart Language College in Harrow has been announced as one of the schools included in the School Rebuilding Programme.Harrow Local Authority has received £2,695,355 in School Condition Allocations (SCA) for the 2023/24 financial year. Harrow Local Authority is responsible for allocating this funding across its schools based on local knowledge of condition need, prioritising keeping schools safe and operational. Academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies also have access to capital funding each year, but allocations typically cut across constituency and Local Authority boundaries. Local Authority schools in Harrow have also been allocated a total of £334,502 in Devolved Formula Capital in 2023/24 to spend on their own priorities. Allocations can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding#funding-allocations-for-the-2023-to-2024-financial-year.The Department’s immediate focus is supporting schools and colleges with remedial work to deal with RAAC. The Department will fund mitigation works that are capital funded, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, this should be discussed with the Department in the first instance to agree any further support needed. All reasonable requests are expected to be approved. Longer term refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects will also be funded where these are needed, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term.With regard to school capacity, the Department is funding nearly £750 million in 2023/24 for new mainstream school places needed for September 2024, a further £195 million for 2024/25 for places needed for September 2025, and nearly £530 million for 2025/26 for places needed for September 2026. £2.6 billion is also being funded between 2022 and 2025 in high needs capital which represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision.The Department is also improving the capability and effectiveness of the sector through guidance such as Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS), and Capital Advisers Programme to help schools and responsible bodies achieve value for money and make the most of their resources.The Department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in education settings at the heart of its policy decisions.

Schools: Buildings

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.3 of the National Audit Office report entitled Condition of school buildings, HC 1516, published June 2023, if she will publish the Spending Review case on school buildings funding sent to HM Treasury by the Department of Education ahead of the 2020 Spending Review.

Nick Gibb: The National Audit Office report outlines different levels of possible investment in the school estate. However, decisions about investment have to be made over a vast range of significant infrastructure projects across government. The Department regularly speaks to HM Treasury about investment in the education estate. It would be inappropriate to disclose the details requested of the sensitive negotiations between HM Treasury and the Department. It would only show part of the picture on a complex decision-making process that takes place between multiple departments, ministers, officials, and other individuals, and would not reflect that such a process has to look across the board at priorities. It would also breach the long-standing traditions, and expectation, of confidential and often commercially sensitive information not being disclosed into the public domain, and of allowing officials to give full and frank advice to ministers.

Schools: Stockport

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the condition of school buildings in Stockport constituency.

Nick Gibb: It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.The Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme was the first ever comprehensive survey of the school estate. Previous administrations took no such action to understand the condition of the school estate. Running from 2017 to 2019, it allowed the Department to understand the condition of the school estate over time, and to inform capital funding and programmes by providing information on the condition of all 22,000 government funded school buildings and 260 further education (FE) colleges in England.Individual CDC reports were shared with every school and the academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided bodies responsible for those schools to help inform their investment plans, alongside their own more detailed condition surveys and safety checks.The key, high level findings of the condition data collection programme were published in May 2021.CDC1 data was committed to the House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries on 20 July 2023.The Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2) programme is currently underway and is visiting all government funded schools in England. CDC2 will update school condition data, concluding in 2026.

Further Education: Buildings

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department takes to monitor the (a) safety and (b) repair standards of (i) school and (ii) further education buildings; and whether this information is published.

Nick Gibb: It is the responsibility of those who run schools and colleges - academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their buildings and they should alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. Those carrying out works must comply with Building Regulations, Construction Design and Management (CDM) regulations and any relevant Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance.The Department does not monitor school or further education repairs. However, this Government has gone further than any previous administration and now carries out a visual, condition based survey of all Government funded schools in England. This means schools and their Responsible Bodies then receive condition reports following the survey and are able to better manage their estates.The Department sets building standards for all centrally delivered new school buildings and major refurbishment projects. These documents are published on GOV.UK. The standards for schools can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employers-requirements-part-b-generic-design-brief. The standards for further education can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employers-requirements-part-b-generic-design-brief https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employers-requirements-for-college-projects-part-a-and-part-b.

Department for Education: Written Questions

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.

Nick Gibb: The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, including written parliamentary questions (WPQs). The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to WPQs to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.All Departments also have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.The below table provides the percentage of WPQs answered on time, and the average number of working days to respond, which were received from Members of the House of Commons and due for answer between 1 March 2023 and 31 August 2023.Total WPQs answered% WPQs answered on timeAverage working days to respond1,57686.3%6.1 Footnotes:Data is based on the number of ‘Named Day’ and ‘Ordinary’ WPQs received and answered by the Department for Education between the 1 March 2023 and 31 August 2023.MPs may table questions specifying the date on which they should receive an answer (a ‘Named Day’ WPQ). MPs must give a minimum of two days notice. However, they may also pick a date further in the future. This can impact the average number of days to respond. ‘Named Day’ WPQs and ‘Ordinary ‘WPQs’ often have different response deadlines.Recess periods can impact the due date for answering WPQs, this will also have an impact on the average number of working days to respond. During this period, the House rose for Easter recess, May Day recess, Coronation recess, Whitsun recess and the Summer recess.The average length of time given to respond to WPQs covers both ‘Named Day’ and ‘Ordinary’ WPQs combined, including the working date the WPQs were received.

Department for Education: Correspondence

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps they are taking to reduce backlogs of Member correspondence in their office.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.

Nick Gibb: The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, either directly or on behalf of their constituents. The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to ministerial correspondence to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.The deadlines set by government departments and agencies for responding to correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers should not exceed 20 working days. The Department has set a more ambitious deadline of 18 days to ensure a customer-centred approach.The table below provides the volumes of correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers received between 1 January 2023 and 30 June 2023.Receipt DateCorrespondence from MPs and PeersOn time 18 daysOn time 20 daysAverage time to reply01/01/2023 – 30/06/20234,02970.4%72.3%23 days The timeliness of Ministerial Correspondence is reviewed weekly by Ministers and the Permanent Secretary and continues to be a priority.

Department for Education: Disclosure of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average response time to subject access requests was by their Department in the latest period for which data is available; and if they will make an assessment of the adequacy of that response time.

Nick Gibb: The Department measures whether a subject access request (SAR) received did or did not receive a response within the legal deadline. It is, therefore, not possible to report on actual clearance time averages. The legal deadline is within one calendar month, or three months if deemed complex. For quarter one, 2023/24 performance for completion within timeframe was 99%.

Academies

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many academies were re-brokered in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (b) 2023; and for what reasons each academy was re-brokered.

Nick Gibb: Between 2021 and 2023, 649 academies have transferred trust. The below table provides detail on the reasons for transfer. Further information is available via the Academy Transfers and Funding publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/academy-transfers-and-funding. 202120222023Due to Intervention403224Transfer Initiated by Trust135162179Sponsor Closure264110

Class Sizes: Warwick and Leamington

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of classes exceed 30 pupils in (a) primary and (b) secondary state schools in Warwick and Leamington constituency; and what information his Department holds on those figures for private schools in that constituency.

Nick Gibb: The Department publishes figures on class sizes for state funded primary and secondary schools in England. The most recent figures are for January 2023 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.Despite an increase of more than a million pupils in state funded primary and secondary schools since 2010, at secondary level, average class sizes remain low at only 22.4 pupils, whilst the average primary class has remained broadly stable at 26.7 pupils.The average class size in Warwick and Leamington constituency is 28.3 in state funded primary schools, and 22.2 in state funded secondary schools.15.5% of state funded primary school classes and 13.8% of state funded secondary school classes in Warwick and Leamington constituency had more than 30 pupils in them, compared to 10.4% and 10.2% in England. Nationally, most pupils in classes over 30 are in classes of 31 or 32.The Department does not collect information on class sizes in independent schools.

Levelling Up Fund

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions has she had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities on using levelling-up funding to improve local infrastructure in low-income areas.

Nick Gibb: The Government’s Levelling Up programme has an ambitious agenda to transform the UK. It will address regional disparities across the UK, put more money in the pockets of those who need it most, and transform the UK economy by generating higher paid jobs and new investment.To facilitate cross Government working on the Levelling Up agenda, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities leads a regular group including Ministers from all Departments. The group provides support, challenge, and accountability to drive progress on the Levelling Up missions and other priorities.

Schools: Solar Power

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Warwickshire have solar panels installed on their roof.

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the average energy consumption of a primary school.

Nick Gibb: Those responsible bodies for school buildings, which includes Local Authorities, academy trusts and diocesan bodies, must ensure that buildings with a total floor area of 250m2 have a Display Energy Certificate (DEC).DECs present the annual energy use and typical energy use of the assessed building. DECs are publicly available at: https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate.The Department is currently working closely with an academic partner on an energy model for the school estate using a variety of available data to establish future investment approaches to achieving net zero and reducing running costs for schools. In December 2022, the Department published guidance on reducing energy for schools alongside additional funding of £447 million aimed at supporting schools with energy reduction measures.​In November 2021, the Department launched its first specification to deliver schools that are net zero carbon in operation. All schools that are procured under this specification will not only be net zero in operation but will also incorporate a wider range of measures to tackle climate change. The Department’s full specification can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/school-design-and-construction#output-specification. ​The Department does not hold the information or collect the data requested with regard to solar panels in Warwickshire, or the average energy consumption of a primary school.

Department for Education: Cybersecurity

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education,  what steps her Department is taking to (a) enhance cybersecurity and (b) protect personal data.

Nick Gibb: Being cyber secure and protecting personal data underpins everything we do in the Department. In accordance with the Government Cyber Security Strategy, the Department is working to ensure that its critical functions will be significantly hardened to cyber attack by 2025, with all government organisations across the whole public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities and attack methods no later than 2030.The Department continues to focus on the development of secure services and the Department’s ability to detect and respond to cyber incidents, including within the supply chain. The Department’s cyber team continues to work closely with colleagues across government, including at the National Cyber Security Centre, to manage its cyber risk.The Department is engaged with the newly launched GovAssure process, which will ensure that cyber security is delivered effectively and consistently across government.The Department takes the protection of personal data very seriously. All personal data is handled in accordance with the Department's data protection policy, which ensures that the Department has put in place appropriate and effective measures to make sure it complies with data protection law. The Department’s staff have access to a number of policies, operational procedures and guidance to give them appropriate direction on the application of data protection legislation. The Department also implements appropriate technical and organisational measures in an effective manner to ensure compliance with data protection principles. This is done by applying adequate resources and controls to document UK General Data Protection Regulation compliance.

Children in Care: Death

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of looked after children who have died whilst living in (a) regulated and (b) unregulated care placements in the last 10 years.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the ages of looked after children who have died whilst living in (a) regulated and (b) unregulated care placements in the last 10 years.

David Johnston: Every death of a child or young person is a tragedy, and the following information is sensitive in nature. Figures for the number of deaths of children looked after in regulated and unregulated accommodation by age in the last ten years are shown below.Number of deaths of children looked after[1] whilst living in regulated or unregulated[2],[3] accommodation by age group[4], for the ten-year period 1 April 2012 - 31 March 2022[5]Coverage: England Age groupRegulated AccommodationUnregulated AccommodationUnder 1 year10001 to 4 years7005 to 9 years40010 to 15 years110016 years and over8050Total39050  Source: Children looked after data return (SSDA903)  [1] Figures exclude children looked after under a series of short-term placements.[2] Regulated accommodation includes children in the following placement types: Foster placements, Secure Children’s Homes, Children’s Homes subject to Children’s Homes Regulations, residential care home, National Health Service (NHS)/health trust or other establishment providing medical or nursing care, Young Offender Institution (YOI), and all residential schools. Unregulated accommodation includes children in the following placement types: Independent living or placements in semi-independent accommodation not subject to children’s home regulations.[3] Excludes the following placement types which do not fall into either the regulated or unregulated category: placed for adoption, placed with own parent(s) or other person(s) with parental responsibility, residential employment, family centre or mother and baby unit, other placement.[4] Age is as at the date the episode of care ceased.[5] Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Totals may not add up due to rounding.

Schools: Repairs and Maintenance

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether capital funding for the maintenance of schools has increased in line with levels of inflation.

Nick Gibb: Safe and well maintained school buildings that support a high quality education are a priority for the Department. That is why the Department has allocated £15 billion since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational. Capital allocations for condition are not tied to inflation rises in England.The Department has increased our annual condition funding to £1.8 billion over the last three years, an increase of over 20% on the 2020/21 financial year’s £1.4 billion annual allocations. The 2021 Spending Review announced a total of £19 billion of capital funding to support the education sector between 2022/23 and 2024/25. The amount spent last year, 2022/23, was the highest in a decade, and the Department’s capital budget is a record £7 billion in 2023/24.In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will carry out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at 500 schools across England, with buildings prioritised based on their condition. There are now 400 projects in the programme. The most recent set of 239 schools were announced in December 2022. All new buildings in the programme will be net zero carbon in operation, making these schools much more economical.In the 2022/23 financial year, eligible schools also received an allocation from an additional £447 million in capital funding for improvements to buildings and facilities, prioritising works to improve energy efficiency.

Department for Education: Freedom of Information

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to improve the response time to FOI requests.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education,what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by her Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.

Nick Gibb: Official National Statistics on Freedom of Information (FOI) performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its FOI performance.

Department for Education: Taiwan

Elizabeth Truss: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 June 2023 to Question 187963 on Department for Education: Taiwan, if she will identify which minister represented her Department for each meeting it held with representatives of the Taiwan Government in 2022; and if she will identify the (i) job title and (ii) grade of the most senior official who represented her Department when a minister was not present for each meeting it held with representatives of the Taiwan Government in 2022.

Nick Gibb: No Department for Education Ministers met with representatives of the Taiwan administration in 2022. The Department had regular official level meetings with representatives of the Taiwanese administration during this period, both in the UK and through the British Office in Taipei, in line with our longstanding policy on Taiwan.

Maintained Schools: Floods

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of maintained schools that are at risk of flooding.

Nick Gibb: The Department does not hold figures for the number of maintained schools at risk of flooding. The Climate Change Committee has advised that 10,710 schools across England are at risk of some form of flooding once every 75 years, but this could mean anything from a few inches to a few feet of water. Because of this uncertainty, the Department is conducting a more detailed flood risk assessment as part of the wider climate risk assessment, which will be published by the end of 2023, in line with the commitment in the Department’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy.

Home Office

Undocumented Migrants: Republic of Ireland

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of Lord Murray of Blidworth of 28 June 2023 on the Lords Report stage of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, Official Report, column 725 HL, what steps she has taken to establish an exception to the duty to remove in cases where people inadvertently enter the UK without leave via the Irish land border.

Robert Jenrick: The Illegal Migration Act received Royal Assent on 20 July 2023.As is standard practice for any legislation, commencement of wider measures in the Act will take place over the coming months, including around the duty to remove.Further guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/electronic-travel-authorisation-eta

Ministry of Justice

Prisons: Locks and Keys

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions a prison has had to be relocked because of the loss or theft of keys between (a) July 2015 and July 2020, (b) July 2020 and July 2021, (c) July 2021 and July 2022, (d) July 2020 and July 2023; and what the cost of each such incident was.

Damian Hinds: The table below shows the number of incidents and cost of relock within prisons in England and Wales due to loss or theft of keys, for the time period requested. DateNumber of RelocksCost (excluding VAT)July 15 to July 206£117,211.50 £422,447.46 £438,525.29 £441,649.00 £21,304.70 £323,151.44July 20-July 212£2,821.40 £313,139.66July 21-July 2200July 22-July 232£28, 650 £29,187.59

Courts: Buildings

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a list of all court buildings constructed during the 1990s.

Mike Freer: As set out in the answer of 4 September 2023, Official Report, PQ 197380, Departments have been surveying properties and depending on the assessment of the presence of RAAC have decided to either continue to monitor the structure, reinforce it, or replace it. This is in line with the approach recommended by the Institution of Structural Engineers.At this stage, the Government does not believe it would be in the public interest to pre-empt that process by releasing piecemeal information which may lead to false assumptions about individual court buildings.

Department of Health and Social Care

Care Homes: Fees and Charges

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an £86,000 cap on care home costs before 2025.

Helen Whately: In January 2022, the Government published an impact assessment for introducing an £86,000 cap on personal care costs and extending the means test in October 2023.This applied to both residential and domiciliary care. As announced in the Autumn Statement, we listened to the concerns of local government and took the difficult decision to delay the planned adult social care charging reforms.The funding intended for charging reform has been retained in local authority budgets to address current pressures and ensure that local authorities have the capacity and system readiness to deliver reform successfully.The impact assessment is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1044903/adult-social-care-charging-reform-impact-assessment.pdf

NHS Trusts: Sexual Offences

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2023 to Question 198541 on NHS Trusts: Sexual Offences, for how long it has been a requirement that NHS organisations should have a policy on sexual misconduct; and what steps his Department takes to enforce this requirement.

Maria Caulfield: All National Health Service organisations have a statutory duty of care to look after the health, safety, and wellbeing of their staff. As such, they are required to protect staff from sexual assault and harassment and to have appropriate policies in place to deal with such issues.On 23 June 2023, the Chief Delivery Officer of NHS England Steve Russell wrote to Chief Executives of all trusts and integrated care boards about sexual safety of NHS staff and patients. He asked them to appoint a Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Lead and to review associated policies to support staff and patients who experience sexual assault and harassment. He said consideration should also be given to having a dedicated sexual safety policy. A copy of the letter is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/sexual-safety-of-nhs-staff-and-patients/ On 4 September 2023, NHS England launched the health service’s first sexual safety charter for those who work, train, and learn within the healthcare system. The charter is an agreement comprising of 10 pledges, including commitments to provide staff with clear reporting mechanisms, training, and support from managers. Organisations signing up to the charter commit to taking and enforcing a zero-tolerance approach to any form of sexual misconduct in the workplace, with a commitment to implement the pledges by July 2024. The Care Quality Commission uses its well-led framework to assess leadership, management, and governance in NHS organisations. It can take enforcement action, including in cases where relevant regulations are not complied with.